The graphics card is the most expensive component when building a new PC, which is why you should place a top priority on choosing the right one for your needs.
Thankfully there are graphics cards that perform really well without breaking the bank.
Two cards fit within our price range and are currently available in South Africa at Evetech: the GTX 1660 Super and the Radeon RX 6600.
Both cards are less than R10,000 and are excellent choices for upgrading or building a PC.
GTX 1660 Super
Currently priced at R8,999, the GTX 1660 Super is often regarded as one of the best graphics cards of its generation.
It has 1,408 cores and 6GB of VRAM, which is more than sufficient for most games and programs you may need to run.
The GTX 1660 Super boasts respectable performance on many titles at 1080p, such as 60fps on Total War: Warhammer 2, 70fps on Middle Earth: Shadow of War and 40fps on Metro Exodus.
This card won’t run high-end games at max settings but will remain viable for gaming for several years, making it an effective budget card.
| GTX 1660 Super | |
|---|---|
| Video Memory | 6GB |
| CUDA Core | 1,408 |
| Engine Clock | OC mode – 1830 MHz
Gaming mode (default) – 1800 MHz Base clock – 1530 MHZ |
| Memory interface | 192-bit |
| Price | R8,999 |
The GTX 1660 Super is an excellent card in its price range.
Radeon RX 6600
The second card is the Radeon RX 6600. It is currently priced at R9,499, which is more expensive than the GTX 1660 Super but provides better performance in return.
Featuring 1,792 stream processors and 8GB of VRAM, the RX 6600 is a powerful card that is more than capable of running even higher performance games.
The card maintained a 60fps average at high-quality settings on Cyberpunk 2077, 95fps on Death Stranding at very high settings and 87fps at max settings on Horizon: Zero Dawn – all at 1080p.
With a comparable CPU, motherboard and RAM, the RX 6600 will be a card you can use for several years before needing to worry about upgrading.
| Radeon RX 6600 | |
|---|---|
| Video Memory | 8GB |
| Stream processors | 1,792 |
| Engine Clock | OC mode – 2491 MHz
Gaming mode – 2491 MHz |
| Memory interface | 128-bit |
| Price | R9,499 |
Though it has a higher price than the GTX 1660 Super, it’s well-worth it given its performance.
Read: The most affordable high-performance GPU
